Here, she shares an average monthly budget from 2013, when she
was furiously paying down her debt, as well as one from 2014, the
year she paid it off. Note that these are averages taken
from a year's worth of spending, so a single month isn't
represented, and the budget was created for her after-tax income.

First, 2013. Her average monthly income, after taxes, was $3949.
This includes earnings from her job, where she was employed until
June of this year, her blog, Young Finances, and miscellaneous
income from smaller gigs such as babysitting.

When setting up her budget, she first subtracts the money that
goes into savings (in 2013, an average of $161 a month), and then
distributes the rest of the money into her various expenses.
While she breaks her spending into even more granular categories,
we've consolidated some here for simplicity. All categories have
been rounded to the nearest dollar.

Note that the "savings" category includes contributions to a Roth
IRA, money invested with robo-adviser
Betterment, savings for travel (one of Styles' financial
priorities), and personal savings. Concentrating on paying the
last of her debt in 2013, she accumulated minimal after-tax
savings in favor of pre-tax retirement contributions, which
wouldn't appear in this budget.

Expenses falling into the "debt" category are her consumer debt,
plus a student-loan payment. Her next big financial goals are
eliminating her $65,000 of
student loans in less than three years and traveling the
world.

She plans to do this by
saving half her after-tax income, which you can see below. In
2014, her average monthly after-tax income was $5178, which she
explains is primarily from her blog.

"During my debt-payoff journey, I learned to separate needs from
wants, and I realized that much of my overspending was from
impulse shopping," Styles explains. "I love shopping for new
clothes and shoes. Now I simply use one rule to keep myself in
check. If I planned to purchase the item, then I can purchase it.
If I am at a store and I want to buy an item that was not on the
list or planned, then I have to plan a day to come back and get
it. It really helps me to prevent those splurge shopping trips!"

Styles also manages to keep an impressively low monthly food
budget — an average of $51 in 2013 and $81 in 2014. "I am a
master grocery shopper," Styles explains. "I buy when items are
on sale (I freeze them if needed), and I am OK eating beans and
vegetables — canned vegetables are pretty cheap. I was vegetarian
for a short while, which is even cheaper."

You'll notice that while the bulk of her budget used to go
towards her debt, it's now allocated to savings, and the car
payment has been eliminated.

Two categories in 2014 that don't appear in the 2013 budget are
entertainment and miscellaneous (which includes nights out and
the occasional shopping trip). When she still had debt, Styles
had cut them out to divert more money toward her payments.

"My entertainment category came back in 2014 as I spent a bit
more on gifts and outings," she says, "but after a restricted
budget it was really difficult to splurge. I essentially got into
the habit of saving more and spending less."

Want to share your budget with the Business Insider
community? Email lkane[at]businessinsider.com. Anonymous
submissions will be considered.